Saturday, June 28, 2014

To be precise, the total ascent was 60 meters and the highest point (from a starting point of 20m) was 70 meters. So pretty flat is the answer; which explains why the 7.5k was completed by the FRB's in 1 hour, and most of the pack were in within 2 or 3 minutes, having successfully negotiated all 7, 360's and 5, F's, or in Gan Yao's case having successfully avoided them!

A good turnout though, of which, no doubt, our returned Hash Cash will give us details, including new runner Christina, living in Songkhla courtesy of Schlum if not actually working for them, and almost returning runners, Meals on Wheels and Yardstick. Also almost returning was Newfie Bullet who turned up to say hello in the company of Wee Wee with a promise to come back in January and actually run.

The 3.3k short run was well supported by everybody who didn't do the long run, leaving Bung a lonely figure at the runsite without City Tits to keep him company. Next week, by popular request will be a relay hare run from somewhere up the top end of Poonakan. Tomorrow will be HH3 and the Sex Star birthday run from behind the Gamling reservoir.
Be there!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

With last weekends runs being judged variously, short, vertical, or intimidating, SH3 will attempt once again to provide the antidote by setting a run that a) will take a modestly fit person about an hour, most of which can be spent in motion involving only one foot being in contact with the ground at a time, b) will not involve more than 100 meters of ascent, and c) should not induce another of Gan Yao's "I'd rather go to Nam Noi than climb that f***ing hill" short cuts.
Details are:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1724, Saturday 28th June 2014, 4:30 p.m.
Hares: Egghead and doggies
Misdirections: From The Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k. Turn left for 1.5k then right and follow the rather tortuously bendy road for 3.4k then turn right at the hash sign for 200 meters to the run site. Park on the bitumen, rather than the grass. Anyone coming from Hatyai and feeling a bit adventurous can reach the run site from the Tha Kham crossroads by heading towards Wat Nern Salai for 1.9k then turning right at the crossroads and following the road for 2.1k to another crossroads and turning right onto the other end of the tortuously bendy road. The turning into the run site is then on the left after 900 meters. Tolerably accurate map below. Click on to make it tolerably legible!

HH3 on Sunday will be from a run site behind the Gamling reservoir: Take Poonakan right from Wat Keow Kloy for about 8k and look for a hash sign on the left then follow signs and/or paper to the runsite. The hares are likely to be the sex people because this is Sex Star's birthday run. Map below.

Evidence above of the far flung activities of SH3 last weekend, with a fair contingent abandoning our own run for the pleasures of the KSH3 600th run, others staying home to make the most of what was left, and still more globetrotting and incomunicado.

Saturday's SH3 turnout was pretty good considering how many people were away, and almost everybody attempted either the long short run or the short long run. At 4:30 there was no sign of the hares at the run site as they were still making their way there on foot from the A site. After some telephone calls it was decided that Aftershock would drive everybody out to the A site in Sex Sprinter's truck, picking the hares up on the way. So it was about 4:50 before all the runners arrived at the A site between the big quarry and the new Hatyai road and were instructed to follow either Buk Toy for the short run or Sex Sprinter, ominously carrying a bag of shreddy, for the long run.

Not long after setting off however, Sex Sprinter relinquished the bag to Aftershock and halted the long run for long enough to allow him time to get away from the rest of the pack, and the long run then became a live hare run, the original run set by Buk Toy and Sex Sprinter having been judged to be too long to complete in the time remaining before dark. At the time this was not made clear to Gan Yao, who not long afterwards made one of his increasingly unreliable leaps of intuition and set off southwards towards Nam Noi, while the rest of the pack performed a small oval and returned northward to the A site in about 30 minutes.

The short run meanwhile took a different and rather longer route to make it back to the A site, by which time Gan Yao's absence had become apparent, and a decision was made for the 2 vehicles at the A site to split up in search while returning most of the pack to the B site, leaving Egghead, Innuendo, R2D2, Itchy Bitchy and a small sack of beer at the A site in case Gan Yao should make his way back there. He, meanwhile had reached the old Hatyai road in record time, in the process running about twice as far as the rest of the pack, and been picked up by a sympathetic tuk-tuk driver and deposited back at the B site.
Eventually the whole hash made it back to the B site, except that the hares had by then buggered off to a social engagement leaving Aftershock to be iced and to take the faint praise awarded to the run.

Sunday's HH3 run was similarly depleted by the absentees who failed to make it back from Ko Samui etc. in time. So a not dissimilar group gathered at the back of Kao Ko Hong and were informed by hares Sex Star and Sexy Girl that they would be climbing up to the metal chedi, then coming back down partially by road: Surprise! Surprise!

First however, the long run was transported down the road by pick-up and began the run by climbing up through a building site, before plunging down into the valley behind and then commencing a long and rather pleasant ascent to the chedi, taking in a lovely trail around the back of the hill where, much to most people's surprise, we were allowed to run for about 10 minutes. Then after a scramble up the hillside we hit the trail to the chedi, before following the road up to a semi-beer stop (only half a can each!) followed by a precipitous descent, which it has to be said avoided the road for all but about 100 meters. The short run meanwhile which had avoided the road trip, laboriously slogged half way up the hill in impenetrable jungle, avoiding all the nice bits of the long run, then followed the long run on the steepest parts of its descent back to the run site.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Okay, come on guys, we were only joking!
With a number of SH3 regulars having exercised their options this weekend, Sex Sprinter and Buk Toy have stepped in to set a run for the battered remnants who are not in Oz, the US, the Netherlands Korea, Chiang Mai or Ko Samui. This probably means that we will have a record attendance as Hatyai H3 turn out in force to keep mummy breathing, and the hares are promising an interesting A-B outing.
Details are:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1723, Saturday June 21st, 2014, 4:30 p.m. sharp
Hares: Sex Sprinter and Buk Toy
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 6.5k and turn right for 1k to the run site at the community center on the right.
Sunday's HH3 run which will similarly suffer the absence of most of it's expatriate element, will be from the football field next to the ITV station in Th. Poonakan: from the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.6k and turn left for 8k then right (into Poonakan at Wat Keow Kloy), for about 7k and turn right into the run site. The hares are revealed in the map below.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

This week's HH3 run will be from the Autistic Children's School in Ban Phru and the run will be in aid of the school, which is a really deserving cause, so please try to come along and support.

Approximate directions from Songkhla are to take the old road past Hatyai to the intersection with the Phattalung/Chana road then go a further 1.8k and turn left into the Chinese cemetery and follow signs for 700m to the school/runsite. The map below gives no details of the hares; ignorace is bliss!

As predicted, 1722 featured some fairly radical terrain with a straight ascent from below 40m to just over 200m in the first 2 kilometers before plunging back down to earth and offering a flat kilometer and a half home without interference from checks. First home was Beavershot who magically assessed the trip at 46 mins. Both After Shock and Sex Sprinter timed it at 53 mins, but were some way behind the evergreen Beaver who seems to have the competitive bit between his teeth these days. Total length was about 4.5k with a total ascent of 250m or so. Most of the long runners were home before the short run which had to make the same ascent, before following the road down in about 2.7k. A short circle ensued and most people had departed the runsite by 6:15 in time to make the wedding dinner by the second course.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Despite a smallish turnout FM110 boasted both a long and a short run with GM'ette Moo Sahb guiding a meaningful group of harriets round the 2.7k course, largely without the aid of paper, in about 30 minutes. Meanwhile the long run pack spent much of the 1 hour 10 minutes it took for Sex Printer to complete the run in the unfamiliar position of being behind Big Foot who got most of the early checks right, but then fell behind towards the end and wandered in 15 minutes or so after the rest of the pack having mistaken a bunch of guys playing cards for the runsite. For the record the long run was around 6k and reached 84 meters at the top of the second F, with a total ascent of 88m. New runners Holden and Handy successfully negotiated the long run whle Sunita made it round the short run in the company of Budokan, Happy Ending and NGV. Following the post-run blow-out, a decision was made to support the recently reopened Tung Nallee where more beer was drunk and we were treated to some tasteful renditions of gentle Thai ballads by Moonlight, Happy Ending, Sunita and Holden. Stumps were drawn sometime before midnight.Gentle reminder! Don't forget that this weeks SH3 run will begin promptly at 4:15 p.m. to ensure that the Hash contingent makes it to Guang's wedding more or less on time. Details are posted below but to save your fingers, the misdirections are:

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

This weeks SH3 run is a pussy run and in view of the need to get away early enough to attend the wedding celebration of Hardware/4-Wheel's son, the start time has been brought forward 15 minutes to 4:15 p.m. and the Pussies have promised a shorter than normal run. But don't expect an easy outing as early information leaking out from the Pussies suggest that we are going to have to earn our remission!

Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k and turn left at the Kuan Hin Mai traffic lights (about 300 meters past the PTT service station). Go about 4k and follow the road round to the right (avoiding the 'left' turn which appears to go straight ahead) then go a further 1.2k and turn left opposite the Bologam temple arch. Go 500 meters along the road to the run site on the left. Usual stuff applies: bring a handlight if you intend to run and some food to share after the run if you feel like it. Beer (Leo) will be on sale at 3 cans for 120 Baht but if you prefer, bring your own brand and share it with your friends. Likely on-on venues include the Karaoke bar at the end of the road which has magically re-opened possibly in honor of this run!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

This isn't quite right, as I went out again before the run and reset the in-trail, so it came in along the dirt road to the site rather than across some really unpleasant ditches (shown here by the wavering line just below the "Active Log" marks). Of course that didn't stop Tsunami, I mean Aftershock, from returning that way anyway, but everyone else came in further east along the road, including a bunch of short runners who lost track of my rather sparse shreddy.

Anyhow the reviews were surprisingly OK, and people did seem to get back more or less together. Total distance was around 8km including the checks. Total ascent, exactly 300m, though most of the run was flat enough that apparently the pace was blistering. First in was Sex Sprinter in 0:59, not that we keep track or anything.

The walking wounded.

As for the D-Day theme, I hoped to draw a map of Britain, but somehow it came out backwards.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

I won't lie to you, men. The situation out there is grim. It is steep. It is muddy. It is thorny and it is hot. But we shall not flag or fail. We shall run on to the end, we shall run in Phichit. We shall run over the hills and through the swamps. We shall run in shiggy and along trails scarcely fit for wild animals. We shall run where others dare not go so that, in the end, we may prevail, because prevail we must. And I have nothing to offer you but blood, sweat, and beers -- hey, hang on, beers?! Well on-on then!

Now: Koh Lidi, 2010

Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1722, 4:30 pm., Saturday, 7 June, 2014Hare: BeavershotMisdirections: From the Ko Yo Intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.6k. Turn left and go 10.6k, then turn right and go 1.1k to the runsite.

Misdiscretions for Sunday's HH3 run are still unavailable at press time. Watch this space!

And this just in: tomorrow, Friday, 6 June, is this month's quiz night at the Office Bar on Sadao Rd. Quizmaster is being billed as "Sparky Dave", which we take to be our very own Short Screw, better known in Hatyai as Sex of the Inhuman. The hash team should be at full strength, but so too may be the dreaded teachers. No blood and no sweat, but plenty of beers again and perhaps the occasional random firing of a mental synapse or two. And when was the last time that happened on a run?

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Here it is in all its 7.9k glory including all the falsies and X's, two of which were never found, reducing to about 6.4 k for the sensible people who hung back and let the FRB's do the work. 1 hour 24 mins for Aftershock and Sex Sprinter who may have been guilty of some "logical short cutting". But in truth the route left little opportunity for many meaningful short cuts unless your name was Gan Yao who successfully edited out the first and highest peak (217m) but did the rest of the run including the second hill. Total ascent was about 300 meters. The rain which greeted the start of the run was enough to reduce the 4k short run to two people, Mucky Pup and Perky. Never let it be said that there aren't any brains at the hash!

Welcome to the electronic organ of Songkhla Hash House Harriers

SH3 is a group of runners, walkers, beer drinkers, and picnickers based in Songkhla, Thailand. We run every Saturday at 4:00 pm. Free transport available on the beer truck, which leaves The Hot Bread Shop on Srisuda Rd. at 2:30 pm. sharpish. Despite what you may see here, we're a family hash and visitors are always welcome. The easiest way to contact us is by adding a comment to any post here.

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Three times the fun!

As the hashing center for Thailand's Deep South, the Songkhla region offers three different hashing experiences: Songkhla Hash, every Saturday; Hatyai Hash, every Sunday; and Hatyai Full Moon Hash, which runs the night of every full moon or thereabouts. Misdirections to each weekend's runs usually appear here by Thursday or so.